TRASH Fashion Special – The Monthly talks with musician, Antwan Ruiz – Part 1 – Learning classical and traditional approaches to playing music

How long have you been learning to play a musical instrument?

I started playing violin when I was 7 years old. I played traditional music and I did some classical training as well.

Now, I have always been quite stubborn, so I found a way to play which worked for me. I created my own way of writing music down, I would write my own notes over the notes written on the page, creating my own musical language, and while this was much to the annoyance of my music teacher, I just had to find my own way of doing it. I did learn to read music although I’m not sure I could it do it now.

Doing it my own way, I found that I didn’t like the overly structured way of playing that I was being taught, and while I do like some form of being regimented, just not the classical way of being like that, so I ended up stopping playing the violin.

You ended up not enjoying playing using the classical approach?

Not completely. I think when I was playing violin I liked the idea of just sitting in on a session, playing Irish traditional music; there are no notes, you just play till you get it. I think that developed my ear for melodies and cadence and that sense of connecting music with the voice.

A lot of people say that the violin is an instrument which is closest to the voice and so playing violin helped me develop my sense of musicality. Of connecting sound with vocals.

What happens after you stop playing classical music?

I discovered Eminem when I was 14. I felt quite rebellious then because of the bad words and the kind of approach to language that he used, and I started to write my own rap songs around that time. I was writing songs in my classes instead of studying for my GCSE’s.

I started recording my own music when I was around 14 or 15, and I released my first song when I was 17.

Did you keep producing your own music after that?

I went back to my trad roots and I took up the guitar. My parents played Flamenco music and I hadn’t realised how that seeped in because people would tell me that there was a Spanish twang to my songs. It must have got there by osmosis.

Most recently I have been recording songs on my IPad, either by myself or with a friend of mine, Eoin, who I met in Donegal.

And over the last two years I have also been working and honing in on live work and I play gigs with a band, or I play with my guitar and backing tracks.